1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to athletic practice equipment generally, and specifically to a system and apparatus for field goal kicking for football and soccer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the game of football in America has developed over the past several decades, special skills have become more important. Special teams or players are drafted into professional clubs or trained in amateur school teams to accomplish tasks of particular use. Passing, running, punting, kicking off, and field goal kicking have their own unique required skills.
Among those skills is the ability to accurately kick a field goal at a long distance. A field goal requires that a kicker loft the football down the field where it passes over a horizontal bar between upright arms which together constitute the goal or goal post. Field goals at a distance greater that half the length of the field are attempted, often in the closing minutes of a close game. Field goals of 10 to 30 yards are more common as a means of accumulating points when a touchdown is uncertain. By contrast, a punt just requires maximum distance down-field within the field width, a kickoff likewise. Thus, a field goal requires a combination of great accuracy and distance.
Kicking is sufficiently important that kickers are often trained to do that one function and no other on the team. The football is positioned on a pad under its lower end. The pad holds the ball up away from the ground, allowing the kicker's foot to get underneath to lift the ball higher. Another player holds the opposite end of the ball with a finger. The top of the ball is tilted back, placing the axis of the ball at a desired angle from vertical toward the kicker.
By contrast, a punt is kicked from the hand of the kicker, while a kickoff is usually done from a low tee with no player holding the ball. The low tee usually results in the ball having a flight path in a long low arc, often ending with the ball bouncing and tumbling along the ground for a long distance. During a game, professional and college teams have a player hold the upper end of the football for a field goal attempt. High School teams may use a pad or tee. In some High School leagues and most leagues for other young amateurs, rules allow a kicking pad of a type requiring no player to hold the upper end of the ball.
Practice requires much individual effort by each player to hone individual skills. Practice games are an important but lesser part of practice. Thus a kicker practices intensively, but the person holding the ball does not need that time. A player's time is wasted if it is only spent in holding the ball for a kicker. A kicker's time is wasted if it is not spent in nearly game-like conditions.
Particularly important is an ability to kick a ball repeatedly from a known, repeatable position. Thus a kicker can better refine his or her skill to achieve that same predictability in kicking if the position of the ball is exactly predictable.
Kicking pads exist in the art in a plethora of designs. Each needs a means to hold the upper end of the ball as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,395 (Ferrebee), U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,948 (Gerela) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,940 (Molettieri). Some lift the lower end up off the field as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,634,122, 4,049,267 (Forrest), and U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,706 (Cavett). Some pads appear to be heavily weighted, and others do not provide for adjustability of the angle of the ball as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,706 (Cavett). Moreover, adjustability for the height of the ball is ignored in many pads. Besides the standard ball size used in professional leagues, numerous sizes are available in backyards. Simple adjustment to ball length is needed for widespread use of a kicking pad.
Likewise, the member holding the top of the ball is often rigid. Some are arguably sturdy enough to be injurious if improperly approached or if tripped over. E.g U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,946,165, 4,648,596 (Long), U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,395 (Ferrebee) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,706 (Cavett).
Other pads use hose-like flexible extensions to hold the ball and prevent injury to a kicker as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,634,122, 4,049,267 (Forrest), U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,940 (Molettieri) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,948 (Gerela). These configurations are not firm and inherently cannot tolerate or hold a ball at an appreciable angle of tilt.
Thus, the holding member above a football should instead be capable of firmly holding the ball, but light and flexible enough to cause no risk of injury. Since the ball should tilt at its upper end toward a kicker, the upper end of a holding member should firmly resist any undesired movement toward the kicker. At the same time, a kicker should be able to adjust the holding member to a desired angle. Then, after a kick, the holding member should move conveniently out of the way.
Although most players kick exclusively with either the right foot only or the left foot only. The side of the pad on which the holding member operates is therefore obviously important. That side will differ between players, who may have to share a kicking pad.
Another weakness of kicking pads is that their upper surfaces upon which a ball rests are often patterned in a design which is little better than a smooth surface. An ability to grip the lower end of a football firmly but releasably is critical to holding a tilted ball.
In like fashion, the underside of a kicking pad needs to accommodate turf, whether natural or artificial, as well as any other likely practice surface. The pad must be stable and level, but must penetrate through the blades of grass or other turf to stay securely in place. A sharp point will penetrate and a large surface, or points broadly separated, will keep the pad stable and level.
For the youngster learning the game of football, the cost, complexity and risk intrinsic to a kicking pad are not to be ignored. A simple manufacturing, shipping, assembly and storage sequence is needed. From initial manufacture to packaging and shipping, the required space, weight and labor are at a premium. Also, easy assembly and disassembly without tools are needed for daily use, daily or seasonal storage by a user, and for repair incident to abuse and extended use.
The current state of the art has not addressed these needs except in isolation. That is, to the extent one need may be satisfied, another is left the worse due to design trade-offs inherent in all engineering. Several of the needs have not been addressed at all. Backyard practice is a substantial fraction of all football played. The need is perhaps greater there for a cost effective solution to kicking practice. In the instant invention, all the foregoing factors are addressed together in a coherent solution calculated to meet each need.
Goals in general are configured for their individual games. For example a large permanent goalpost in an "H" shape is permanently installed for football. A smaller, overhead netted enclosure is the goal for soccer. A smaller, approximately waist-high netted enclosure serves as a goal and net for hockey and lacrosse. Football and soccer goals are large enough that installation in a backyard playing field is prohibitively inconvenient, costly or both.
Nevertheless, some sports have goals or apparatus which lend themselves to home practice. Being of reasonable size, basketball goals are ubiquitous. Similarly, systems exist to pitch back a thrown baseball, return tethered tennis balls for practicing service and kick a golf ball back out of the cup after a putt, successful or unsuccessful. Such systems are available in professional, collegiate, high school, and amateur systems. Thus the backyard athlete is adequately served.
Various patents relating to goals for football, hockey and soccer exist. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,787 (Heinbigner) issued Jun. 28, 1974 discloses a flexible bag attached to a vertical rim on legs to provide a football practice target. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,166 (Baker et al.) issued May 2, 1989 discloses a ground-supported system for targeting and capturing a football. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 250,283 (Norton) issued Nov. 14, 1978 discloses a goal post structure similar to the conventional "H" shaped traditional goal posts for football. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 821,736 (Franklin et al.) issued Nov. 19, 1991 discloses a tabletop football goal and net. U.S. Pat. No. 2,525,304 (Lindsay) issued Oct. 10, 1950 discloses a hockey goal which is capable of absorbing impact.
However, football for children or for backyard practice lacks a reasonable facsimile of a goal. Soccer is likewise without a goal. Notwithstanding a goal of full size may be unwieldy, inconvenient and costly, any task requiring the aiming skill of kicking a football or soccer ball can be done with a smaller goal at a shorter range. That is, any skill akin to marksmanship with a ball can be practiced at close range by narrowing the permissible "window" which constitutes the goal.
For field goal kicking, the football goal must have an appropriate height for its crossbar, with a length thereof to support uprights at a proportionate width. Thus, a kicker needs to practice achieving proper loft of the ball while placing the football between lateral limits. From the point of contact with a player's foot, the ball has a ballistic trajectory. Achieving that trajectory can be practiced at a close range with a smaller goal if the height and width thereof both correspond to the same trajectory as that of a larger goal. Meanwhile, a goal of reduced size may be sufficient in itself for developing skills at a smaller scale commensurate with a young child's skill and size.
For soccer, the goal must have a limited height and width close to the ground. Thus a ball kicked over or wide of the goal "window" should not be counted. Again the smaller target or window area is perhaps more challenging but can be practiced at shorter range for accuracy. For long range equivalent to a game, a small soccer goal, unlike a football goal of reduced size is still beneficial for honing skills associated with both accuracy and distance in all dimensions. By contrast, reduced height at a long distance does not present the same test of the skill of lofting the football. Nevertheless, at close range a reduced height can still be an appropriate challenge to the skill of lofting a football.